Shellfish
BY NICKI HOLMYARD
Bothered by Brexit UK shellfish producers look back on 2021 as a year of missed opportunities
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REXIT, one year on! Where to start? Unfortunately, a phone around of shellfish farmers found not one person with anything good to say about it. Our industry approached 2021 being told that “it will be business as usual”. We had expressed doubts about this for the previous two years, but had been reassured in wri�ng by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) that we would s�ll be able to export, even in the event of a no-deal Brexit. It is now almost one year since we transi�oned out of Europe and almost one year since our worst nightmares were realised. It transpired that the UK nego�a�ng team had failed to ask the right ques�ons about expor�ng live shellfish, leaving anyone with bivalves grown in Class B waters unable to send them to Europe without first depura�ng the animals. Pre-Brexit, this trade was unhindered. There followed months of fran�c phone calls, bad-tempered mee�ngs with Defra and the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) officials, Ministers, MPs and anyone we thought might be able to help. We ini�ated a prominent media campaign, with radio, TV, newsprint and online papers eager to highlight another Brexit disaster. Our own company also threatened to sue the Government and we have spent considerable �me, money and energy closeted with lawyers. Our collec�ve case was not helped by the Secretary of State for the Envi-
ronment placing the blame squarely and very publicly on the shoulders of the European Commission, sta�ng that they had “changed the rules”. They had not: Defra officials had failed to understand those rules and had failed to listen to industry, as was found by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Commi�ee in its inves�ga�on of meat and fish exports. A pot of money offered to shellfish farmers to build depura�on facili�es completely ignored the reality, which had repeatedly been explained to the Minister, that buyers in Europe do not want depurated shellfish. Depura�on is already an integral part of their own process and to do it twice shortens shelf life. Exports of bulk quan��es of bivalves from Class B waters represent the majority of produc�on in England and Wales. Ignoring this issue was a huge omission.
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Shellfish (Nicki Holmyard) v2.indd 28
Left: Na�ve oysters, Sailors Creek Shellfish Above: Queen scallops Opposite: Mussels packed
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11/01/2022 14:13:36
